2021 Life Logs, Day 71: The List
Date: Friday, March 12, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Windy; High 63, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
If you were a common woman living in the beginning of the first century, your daily ‘to do’ list might look something like this.
Haul water.
Card flax.
Spin thread.
Weave clothes.
Mend sandals.
Make soap.
Pummel wheat.
Collect dung.
Prepare food.
Milk goats.
Feed men.
Feed babies.
Feed animals.
Tend children.
Sweep dirt floors.
Empty waste pots.
Are you tired yet? This list is from a book I am currently reading entitled The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. Heather gave me her copy of the book for my birthday. It is a novel about a woman named Ana, who, in this book, is the wife of Jesus. I am sure this offends many people, but the author did meticulous research into life during that period and the book is mostly about the life of this woman who was the wife of Jesus, not about Jesus himself. I find it a fascinating look into the life of a woman who struggles to realize her life’s dreams and am loving this book. From the background that I have read, the Sue Monk Kidd has stated that she did not want to offend with this story. In an author’s note she writes, “I am deeply and reverentially aware that Jesus is a figure to whom millions of people are devoted. His impact on the history of Western civilization is incomparable.”
I am not offended and look forward to taking Jonah, and sometimes Ollie, to the skatepark in the afternoon so I get in a little extra reading time. Reading Ana’s ‘list’ today, I thought about my daily list versus hers. We no longer have to haul water, weave clothes, or repair sandals. But we do need to feed whoever is in our household, feed animals if we have them, tend children, and sweep floors. My daily list changes with the seasons, but right now it revolves around writing. It goes something like: take Shadow outside to go ‘potty’, read the NYT The Morning online and work the mini-crossword puzzle, prepare and eat breakfast, read and answer emails, write, take Shadow out, write, prepare and eat lunch, write, pick up Ollie and ‘tend’ to grandchildren at the skatepark, come home, take Shadow out, write, prepare and eat dinner, write some more, watch cable television while riding my exercise bike and writing my log, take Shadow out, go to bed. Obviously, writing is the center of my world right now. Oops, I forgot to sweep the floor! What’s on your daily list?
